Night in West Asheville, NC

I went to the ‘blues jam’ at the west Asheville Westville pub last night and was engrossed watching the locals – young and old alike – dance with different partners to the music.  They were so sincere in their dancing and obviously enjoying themselves that I finally felt like I’d arrived in The South.  One severe faced girl with a mouth that seemed to contain huge buck teeth on account of the jowls she had, would dance with every partner and to every dance with her hand on her partner’s back, at a rigid angle with only the thumb and forefinger touching his back – as if to suggest anything else would be prurient.

The HoneyCutters : Irene

In the morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway a rock slide had occurred above the French Broad River and the road was closed. As I contemplated driving around the barricade I met a cool dude named Peter James who is in an Asheville band The HoneyCutters (thanks for the trail mix Peter).   We had a good conversation about the curse of too much self-awareness and how it doesn’t seem to afflict the southerners – who have all been pretty earnest.    Irony does seem to peter out somewhere along the southern half of the Appalachians. I didn’t regretfully go around the barrier blocking the slided road…

Asheville Deco Downtown

The homeless man that sat down to bum a cigarette from me outside the City Bakery Cafe confided in me that he was a shoplifter, but he didn’t like to be bad, that he’d been in Asheville for 41 years (he was 41).  He saw things in shops, shiny things, and he just wanted them, wild-eyed and craven.  His take on Asheville was that it was a good town, and that there were a lot of police but that they didn’t mean bad.

Blue Ridges

After the GPS froze for a while I asked several people (within 1 hour of Athens, GA) if I was going in the right direction. The usual response was a ponderous You want go to Athens. Georgia??? I amused myself by wondering where else they might think I wanted to go, Greece?   So I looked it up and the Athens in Georgia is the only significant Athens in the USA and 8 hours from the nearest other Athens (in Virginia).
Maybe their response was just meaning, surely you don’t want to go all the way to Athens, Georgia? I can’t say much other than it’s a small town.

Asheville, Building.	Asheville, NC Mexican Tienda	Asheville, Building.	Only the finest!
Asheville City Building	Asheville Courthouse	Ashville Deco	Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway – Looking Glass Waterfall	Blue Ridge Parkway – Looking Glass Waterfall
Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Bald Rock
Blue Ridge Parkway	Devil's Courthouse	View From Devil's Courthouse	View From Devil's Courthouse
Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway	Blue Ridge Parkway

Asheville, NC to Athens GA

The best non-interstate route was through on the Blue Ridge Parkway which goes all through the Jefferson National Forest along the ridge.  Driving up to the ridge it became so foggy that going 15-25 mph was the only safe way to wind through the turns and in and out of the hollows.

Rock Point - Blue Ridge Parkway

The after about 40 minutes I rounded a few corners with the sun lifting the fog and came to a corner of the road where it was perfectly sunny and overlooked a blanket of cloud punctuated by a few distant mountain -tops.  It felt like it does when you descend in an airplane – brilliantly sunny with surreal white puffy clouds.

I was inspired to record a video – alas it turned out not to be the best part of the parkway but I was entertained to be duct-taping my camera to my GPS mount and driving around – I suspect the lens was covered in mist.

Self-timed in front of the valley

Following that, I stopped to get another picture and ditched my bike. It was painful but more so for my pride than the minor cuts.  I realized I was desperately trying to pick it up before a car drove by and saw my idiotic manoeuvre.

After about 2.5 hours on the parkway (it is 469 miles (755 km)  I headed for the interstates to try to get to the hostel in Asheville sometime shortly after dark – arriving in daylight was by then impossible.   It turned out to be a dark,  cold and unsafe. The new GPS kept saying it wasn’t connected and showing the “Shutdown in 30 seconds” message, necessitating me pressing a button to keep it on on battery power – a right-hand steering, left-hand crossed over the right pushing buttons on a tiny screen on a vibrating motorbike in the mist.  Also the highways in NC have a 70 mph limit so with multiple trucks, drizzle, and the drive going over ominously named Black Mountain, I has quite happy to arrive at the hostel sometime before 8pm.

I also recorded this video but I’m not sure what I’m babbling about.



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